Korean Boys Over Flowers + the Poll!!!

[alexandral]

I think I am in complete minority with Korean BoF.

- I still like it very much; this drama is not in my top 5 but definitely is in my top 10-15 Korean dramas.

- I am still shipping JanDi/JunPyo. Gosh, Lee Min Ho is so gorgeous I will ship him with anyone until the ends of time.

- I don't ship Jan Di / Ji Hoo at all. This is a surprise for me because I had a soft spot for Lei/Shankai when he made the Meteor Garden for her, I shipped Rui/Makino with quite an obsession (I confess I even cried a bit at the end :D) and I really like Ji Hoo himself. But there is something in him that makes me think I would prefer to ship him with a boy and that moment he had with Jun Pyo sleeping in his bed sealed it.

- I am quite glad that we got a different version of the story and it is a Korean drama through and through, with over-the-top angst, mopping and all such things .

+ The only thing that is bad for me in Korean Boys Over Flowers is the herouine. I don't know if the problem for me is in her constant mopping because Makino did a fair bit of mopping in Japanese version too. I think I just don't like Jan Di, I don't see why Ji Hoo and Jun Pyo should like her, etc. etc. Koo Hye Sun looks older than the rest of the cast, I am not fond of her acting and she has a haircut that should be strictly banned from hairdressing.

Below is my attemp at a purely scientific poll I tried to make to find out your preferences:

[Poll #1363046]

Comments

[uisceros.livejournal.com]

I think I love you for saying this! I feel the same way about Boys Before Flowers; I still love it. I still ship Jan Di/Jun Pyo. And I'm glad it's different from the others as well (it would be boring if they were all the same!) I do, however, really like Jan Di ;)

I'm really surprised the fandom soured on BBF so fast!

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

I have to admit, the jdrama is the only version I can say Ilike with any degree of honesty. I've never been able to be interested at all in the kdrama, hated the bit of the manga (or rather, I liked Makino, but loathed the men, and even if he had grown on me, I couldn't see myself liking him enough to sit through 30+ volumes of her having to deal with his issues) I read, and thought the first half of MG was ok, but the second half was mostly a case of horrified fascination for me. While I'm not as smitten with Barbie as everyone else is (she always strikes me as rather disinterested in her roles) I agree with the general consensus that Shancai is tougher than Makino. That same toughness, though, made it difficult for me to accept Shancai/Dao Ming Si, because the way it played out, it felt more like he wore her down than that he won her over. Plus, I never recovered from her "maybe it was my fault" monologue after he hits her, because it came across far too much like an abused wife/girlfriend defending her abuser, even though I know it wasn't the intent.

(As a tangent, I've also never understood why the various incarnations are always declared feminist for having a heroine who's tough and doesn't let people push her around, because that should be the expected norm, not an amazing, revolutionary shock. It just means it's doing one aspect better than other things do.)

[alexandral.livejournal.com]

I think that being fair my main problem is the Jan Di's haircut. For example, look at Koo Hye Sun here : http://wiki.d-addicts.com/Image:Koo_Hye_Sun-headshot.jpg. She is pretty! But every time I see her in BoF a haircut purist in me dies a little. :D

I'm really surprised the fandom soured on BBF so fast!

Sometimes people can get completely unhappy when a show goes not the way they expect, I am pretty much like this myself adn it happened to me with "Hong Gil Dong" which I liked at first and which ened among few dramas that I don't like.

[timescout.livejournal.com]

I'm still finding it entertaining myself. But I'm farely easy to please, I never seem to get irritated by the things many others do. I'm not a shipper so that's neither here not there for me, I'm quite happy with the pairings the writers deem fit to give us.

I do think that the scripts are all over the place and it has glaring WTF moments but things like that don't usually bother me much. I'm game even with glaring plotholes, ha.

As much as I love Lee Min Hoo's portrayal of Jun Pyo, Ji Hoo is my favourite character. I always favour the 'good guys' almost without a fail. ;)

[alexandral.livejournal.com]

Plus, I never recovered from her "maybe it was my fault" monologue after he hits her, because it came across far too much like an abused wife/girlfriend defending her abuser, even though I know it wasn't the intent.

I agree with you here - this scene is really terrible, I hated it and I just erased it out of my memory like a bad dream. It is bad enough that he hits her after he is in love with her and after there seem to be some changes in him (so these changes seem to be just temporary) but the worst is that "may be it is my fault" thinking of Shankai's. I just pretend that this scene doesn't exist because it is not fitting to the the way both characters were developing..

As a tangent, I've also never understood why the various incarnations are always declared feminist for having a heroine who's tough and doesn't let people push her around, because that should be the expected norm, not an amazing, revolutionary shock. It just means it's doing one aspect better than other things do.

It seems to be quite a change for usual dorama scenarios where even the best of girls usually need "saving". However, there are all sorts of more feminist mangas, even "Claymore" comes to mind.

[alexandral.livejournal.com]

I am like this too - I can be very nit-picking with films but it seems I have a big blind eye where doramas are concerned. I guess I am not watching them with a purpose of looking for plotholes, I thought plotholes is the part of the ride. :D

I am an obsessive shipper, but what saves me is that I usually tend to ship canon pairings. This helps - I get terribly upset when my pairing goes wrong.

As much as I love Lee Min Hoo's portrayal of Jun Pyo, Ji Hoo is my favourite character. I always favour the 'good guys' almost without a fail. ;)

I tend to go for bad boy/redemption types the most. But in RL I am all for good boys. Ji Hoo is lovely.

[bzoppa.livejournal.com]

I haven't seen the Japanese so I couldn't take 100% honest participation in this poll.

I had to go with Mei Zuo for Woo Bin/Akira because he was brought up in L.A. and his perfectly articulated English was so jarring. I actually like Woo Bin a lot (especially as they throw in the randomness and try to give him more presence) but I swear, Vanness Wu made me laugh the entire show.

I'm glad Ga Eul is winning :)

[uisceros.livejournal.com]

I agree with you on the haircut. Why did they ever do that to poor Koo Hye Sun?! The scenes were she was in Macau has, in my opinion, the best Jan Di hair. It was longer, and she wore it cuter.

I haven't had the good to bad experience yet, so I can't really compare. The only drama I've ever really disliked is Meteor Garden 2, and I didn't like it from the beginning.

[uisceros.livejournal.com]

Random butt in (hope you don't mind!), but I have to say, I have the same feelings about Barbie. I don't hate her, but I really don't why everyone loves her. I remember in one of those behind the scenes things in Corner with Love, she made her assistant run around after her with an umbrella so she wouldn't be in the sun for very long. I think it was then that I decided she was a bit too much of a primadonna for me.

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

I just posted a rambly comment on uisceros' lj about why BOF bothers me so much. Heeee - we seem to be polar opposites on this drama, as with Hong Gil Dong :)

I won't repeat what I ranted about so I'll just say that their scriptwriter drives me nuts with character inconsistency but he is a genius compared to their sucky editor :)

Also, it's the first drama where I don't ship the canon couple which means the scriptwriter is doing something very very odd indeed!

Oh, and MG is my favorite for all the categories except for Ji Hoo and Ga Eul. Oh Barbie, I love her so much!

[alexandral.livejournal.com]

Hee! Vanness Wu and his hair! I liked that in Taiwanese version he always was a separate entity, he was always the one to come up with sensible thoughts and suggestions and provided the necessary balance to F4. :D Akira was a bit OTT and Woo Bin seems to be totally unnecessary to the story.

Ga Eul is such a hit with me. :D

[alexandral.livejournal.com]

Also, it's the first drama where I don't ship the canon couple which means the scriptwriter is doing something very very odd indeed!

hee! I am usually the same with canon-shipping, I only had a couple of exceptions and the first one came as a complete surprise/shock . "Hong Gil Dong" and "HYD" are the only dramas/mangas where I don't ship the canon couple, both cases have a specific reason - in HGD it was the fact that Hong Gil Dong was looking down on her most of the time and in HYD I just was crazy about Oguri Shun. "Powerful Opponents" doesn't really count because it isn't clear who the canon couple is.

I'll just say that their scriptwriter drives me nuts with character inconsistency but he is a genius compared to their sucky editor :)

I haven't seen anything out of usual Korean scripwriting and editing yet..

[alexandral.livejournal.com]

The only drama I've ever really disliked is Meteor Garden 2, and I didn't like it from the beginning.

I haven't really tried that one - it seems that no-one liked it. I had few dramas that seemed to be too naive/boring from the beginning and I dropped them after 3-4 episodes.. like "Robbers" or "Romantic Princess".

[alexandral.livejournal.com]

Gosh, stories like that spoil my enjoyment of the actor's roles too.

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

I think Barbie is a decent actress, and certainly much better than, say, Rainie Yang (who always strikes me as likable, but relying entirely on cuteness) or, frankly, any of F4, but she never seems to quite care about her roles.

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

The thing is that i could buy it as he does it, and then realizes how horrible it was and it was a changing point. Instead, it was just an excuse for some angst, and the way the show deliberately avoided it resulted in a standard setup for the beginning of an abusive relationship.

Shancai/Makino still needs saving too, though. Both versions (jdrama and twdrama) end up being more his story, dominated by his issues and problems, than hers, and I understand the manga is even moreso. The fact that she's what the norm should be doesn't makes it feminist. As far as anime and manga go, the only ones I'd label feminist off the tp of my head are Claymore, Basara, Skip-Beat, Revolutionary Girl Utena, and Princess Tutu. (There are more, that I've read and otherwise, I'm just not immediately thinking of them.)

[alexandral.livejournal.com]

and then realizes how horrible it was and it was a changing point.

Actually, I think I seem to remember this was what happened - I am rewatching "Meteor Garden" now, I'll pay more attention. But I seem to rememebr that for Dao Min Sai this was the last time he ever hit her.. This doesn't make the inner monologue of an abused woman from Shankai any better.

Shancai/Makino still needs saving too, though. Both versions (jdrama and twdrama) end up being more his story, dominated by his issues and problems, than hers

I think you are right here, though I must say that both Makino and Shankai appear more in charge than he is.

[bae-mac.livejournal.com]

"Hong Gil Dong" and "HYD" are the only dramas/mangas where I don't ship the canon couple,</>

Oh...we have this as something in common dear!

:)

[miss-dian.livejournal.com]

I still adore BOF but there are parts that annoy me, like, the scriptwriters seeming to be confused with the shipping. I am actually partly leaning towards Jae Kyung/Jun Pyo and Jan Di/Ji Hoo. Although Ji Hoo kissing Yi Jung was the cutest thing from ep 19, LOL. I am also not hating or becoming too bored with the drama. My main problem is that some parts are just making me annoyed. I have to say that I love Evil Mother dearly, though, for having the glare that would kill a thousand cats, hah. I despise her character but to some small (tiny?) extent she makes sense, and the actress does perform a great job :)

[alexandral.livejournal.com]

I am actually partly leaning towards Jae Kyung/Jun Pyo and Jan Di/Ji Hoo.

My thinking is that the writers did intend this to happen (true love quadrangle and all) , but the problem is that there is a big percentage of fans who know the manga and the other versions very well and who don't like the change in the paradigm , because in all previous cases it was more about Makino/Domioji against the world than about the love triangle/quadrangle. And a "couple against the world" paradigm is always more interesting than love triangle, I don't know why Korean dramas like love triangles. I am fine with the love quadrangle story myself because I always was more about the hotness of the main leads than about the love story. (Hmm, this is a rather long passage :D)

Evil mother is very impressive here. He-he - I love your "kill a thousands cats" phrase!!!!!!!!

Ji Hoo kissing Yi Jung was sooooooooo cute :D I am also so involved in Ga Eul/Yi Jung.

[alexandral.livejournal.com]

Jang Geun Seok love!!! He could have made a nice Rui/Lei/Ji Hoo IMHO. :D

[anaswings.livejournal.com]

Of course, I think that BBF is much better than HYD if we talked about the manga, because it's almost the same.
BTW, all the characters are nicer in Korea. I think so... =D

[alexandral.livejournal.com]

BTW, all the characters are nicer in Korea. I think so... =D

I agree - the Korean cast is much prettier than Japanese or Taiwanese cast. They have a very special genes pool in Korea. :D

[joonni.livejournal.com]

I can't do the poll because I can't compare. I take the faults of the kdrama as a fault of the drama itself, apart from comparisons.

I still like the drama too and it still has good moments. I'm still going to watch it faithfully. I also enjoy this different version. I just wish they did it better.

I thought the haircut was okay but now I am beginning to see the awfulness of it, especially in still photos.

[alexandral.livejournal.com]

I still like the drama too and it still has good moments.

YAY! Ji Hoo kissing Yi Jung was definitely a good moment. :D

As you say, Korean BoF is very much a korean drama and some things (like the backstories for Yi Jung and Wo Bin) are excellent and VERY Korean drama.

I thought the haircut was okay but now I am beginning to see the awfulness of it

I also hate the long socks Jan di is wearing with a passion.